Article: "Welcome Back" from NCAA Football Executive Producer Roy Harvey
EA SPORTS has posted a new blog from NCAA Football Executive Producer Roy Harvey. Continue on to read the full blog and then share your thoughts with the community.
Another season is upon us and the countdown begins. Over the next 90 days you’ll be hearing about everything we’ve put into NCAA Football 12 and we hope you’ll like what you’re going to see. It represents months of deep development and the next serious step in innovation that we initiated last year with NCAA Football 11.
I have no major announcements today, but I can say that our focus and fundamental strategy hasn’t changed. It’s still all about the three key elements I described in my blog last year “A New Game Plan”; Core Experience, Authenticity, and Innovation.
The community feedback we’ve received on ’11 through emails, forums, and surveys has been encouraging and I’m happy to report that we’ve incorporated many of these requests into the newest edition.
Starting with the core, we continue to acknowledge and agree that gameplay is what matters most. The engine we share with our brothers on Madden is getting some big upgrades and improvements that we will customize and tune for the right collegiate feel. You can also expect another big push on the defensive side of the ball this year. Other than that, there’s not much more I can say just yet. But please be patient, there are definitely “under the hood” details ahead in the coming weeks.
With regard to authentic presentation, we are making a big push in this area as well because it’s a huge part of what college football means -- the passion, pageantry, and tradition is like no other sport in the world (FIFA comes close…). You may have caught a few of the rough iPhone screenshots released so far, but the better looking stuff is coming in the next few days. Here are a few minor details I can share now for my Michigan brethren. At least in the virtual world I can put them in the Rose Bowl this year.
http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/eas...E-01-small.jpg
New Big House stadium lights are also in and ready to go…
http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/eas...E-02-small.jpg
Another minor item to start planning for – you’ll be able to fully customize entrance music this year, so get your tracks ready…
Finally, with regards to online, the response to NCAA Football 11’s online dynasty mode has been outstanding, so expect some interesting news here in as we get closer to launch.
In closing, on behalf of the team I’d like to thank all the fans who’ve written in with suggestions and comments. While we can’t possibly get to the thousands of ideas that have come in, we do take your feedback very seriously when designing the game and work to get as much in as time and resources will allow. From big ideas to the little things like dreads, bowl patches, band placement, uniform details, and mascot changes – everything contributes to realism and authenticity – and they all came from you. So please keep the cards and letters coming…
Keep the faith, real news is up ahead!
Roy
NCAA Football 12
Executive Producer
PS -- You can still email me at NCAAFootballFeedback@ea.com. As mentioned previously, given the incredible amount of email I get daily, I don’t always have time to reply, but I do promise I’ll read everything you send. Please keep it civil and spam free ;-)
